Filter tipped cigarettes



Oct. 18, 1966 J. BRENNER ETAL 3,279,475

FILTER TIPPED CIGARETTES Filed Jan. 9, 1964 INVENTORS JULIUS BRENNER ALAN L. WHITE United States Patent 3,279,475 FILTER TIPPED CIGARETTES Julius Brenner and Alan L. White, both of Arlington, Va., assignors to Trans-World Raysol Ltd., Nassau, Bahama, a corporation of the Bahamas Filed Jan. 9, 1964, Ser. No. 336,747

1 Claim. (Cl. 131-10) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in cigarettes, and in particular the invention concerns itself with improvements in cigarettes which have a filter tip.

As is well known, nicotine, tars and combustion gases resulting from burning of cigarette tobacco are alleged to be harmful to the human body, not only in that they introduce nicotine and tar. deposits into the throat and lungs but also in that they deprive the pulmonary system of an adequate oxygen supply and introduce carbon monoxide into the blood stream which eventually breaks down the iron content of the blood. In an effort to minimize this harmful condition, cigarettes have become equipped with various types of filter tips in which tars and nicotine are intended to be trapped so that they do not enter the smokers mouth. While such filters serve their intended purpose reasonably well, they nevertheless permit carbon monoxide laden smoke to pass therethrough and thus they fail to alleviate the harmful condition resulting from a depleted oxygen supply and admission of carbon monoxide into the blood stream. In a further effort to cope with the situation, it has been proposed to provide the cigarette wrapper with apertures for admission of air into the cigarette to mix with the smoke and dilute the carbon monoxide content thereof. Such an arrangement, however, not only requires the use of special, perforated cigarette paper, but it interferes with proper draft of smoke through the cigarette and produces a noticeable reduction in satisfaction derived from smoking.

It is, therefore, the principal object of the invention to eliminate the above outlined disadvantages by the provision of an improved filter tipped cigarette wherein air inlet apertures are critically located relative to the cigarette body and to the filter, so that highly efficient cooling and dilution of smoke is attained and so that trapping of nicotine and tars in the filter is rendered much more effective. Particularly, the arrangement of the invention is such that it may be embodied in the manufacture of conventional filter tipped cigarettes without any change or structural modification of machinery and practically without any additional cost.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a filter tipped cigarette embodying the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary longitudinal sectional view of the filter tip end portion thereof;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view, taken substantially in the plane of the line 33 in FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary longitudinal sectional detail showing the smoke and air flow;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the apertured portion of the filter tip; and

FIGURE 6 is an end view of the filter tip, illustrating regions of discoloration.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, the general reference numeral 10 designates a filter tipped cigarette which includes the usual cigarette body 11 and a filter tip 12. The body 11 consists of a paper wrapper 13 and a tobacco filler 14, the paper Wrapper being imperforate throughout. The filter tip 12 consists of a suitable filter element 15 surrounded by a tipping band 16. The element 15 abuts the adjacent end of the cigarette body 11, as in the plane of the line 3-3 in FIGURE 2, and the tipping band 16 is wide enough so that it overlaps the adjacent end portion of the paper wrapper 13, being adhesively secured thereto in accordance with conventional practice so as to hold the filter in place.

The invention involves the provision of a plurality of circumferentially spaced apertures 17 in the tipping band 16 at a critical location relative to the paper wrapper 13 and to the filter element 15. The apertures 17 are located so that they are traversed by the transverse plane 18 in which the filter element 15 abuts the adjacent end of the cigarette body, whereby each aperture overlies an end region of the paper wrapper 13 as well as an end region :of the filter element 15, as is best shown in FIGURE 5. As illustrated, the transverse plane of abutment 18 crosses the apertures 17 diametrically, which is the preferred arrangement. However, the center of the apertures may lie slightly to one side or the other of the transverse plane 18, as long as the apertures are traversed by the plane 18 and end regions of both the wrapper 13 and of the element 15 are exposed through the apertures to the atmosphere. The apertures are preferably three in number, equally spaced in a circumferential direction, and of a diameter of approximately .030 inch.

As has been already stated, the tipping band 16 is adhesively secured to the paper wrapper 13 and consequently, when the cigarette is manufactured, the apertures 17 are closed by both the underlying paper wrapper and the filter element, as shown in FIGURE 2. However, when thecigarette is smoked and mouth suction is applied to the filter tip, atmospheric pressure acting on the end regions of the paper wrapper 13 which are exposed in the apertures 17 will cause these paper regions to be deflected inwardly as indicated at 13' in FIGURE 4, thus providing openings through which cool, fresh air may be drawn .into the, cigarette in the immediate region of the inner end of the filter element, as indicated by the arrows 19. In so doing, the atmospheric pressure may also cause some inward deflection of regions of the filter element exposed in the apertures 17, as indicated at 15' in FIG- URE 4, it being understood that although the tipping band 16 is adhesively secured to the paper wrapper and to the filter element during manufacture, the specific location of the apertures 17 so that they are traversed by the abutment plane 18 leaves regions of the paper wrapper and filter element exposed and free under the apertures to permit their inward deflection by atmospheric pressure as above described. The critical location of the apertures 17 is also of marked significance in that it completely avoids the necessity of forming perforations in the paper wrapper 13 itself, as has been the conventional practice. Thus, the teachings of the invention may be embodied in conventional filter tipped cigarettes during the process of manufacture without any changes or structural modifications of machinery, it only being required to provide the tipping band with the perforations which can be done at practically no cost in the running length of the band prior to its application to the cigarettes.

Referring again to the operation of the invention, as cool, fresh air is drawn through the apertures 17 by application of mouth suction to the filter tip, smoke and hot gases of combustion are also drawn through the cigarette body 11 from its burning outer end. Since this some and hot gases must pass through the tobacco filler 14, they travel at a slower speed than the fresh, cool air incoming through the apertures, and when the slowly moving hot gases indicated at 20 in FIGURE 4 encounter the fast moving cool air stream 19, condensation of the hot gases takes place at the inner end of the filter element 15 and as a result of that condensation nicotine and tars areextracted from the smoke and absorbed by the filter element, while the smoke, amply cooled and diluted by fresh air, passes through the filter as at 21 to the mouth.

FIGURE 6 shows the outer end of the filter tip wherein it will be noted that the cool, diluted smoke which flows through portions 15a of the filter element adjacent the apertures 17 leaves those portions relatively clean, while portions 15b ofthe filter element between the clean portions 15a become stained and discolored by deposits of nicotine and tars therein.

In a chemical test involving the invention, the following results were obtained:

After conditioning at 77 F. (25 C.) and 50 percent relative humidity, the average weights of the cigarette samples were determined and only those cigarettes were selected for test which did not deviate from the average weight by more than +50 milligrams. The cigarettes were smoked to a butt length of 23 millimeters. Five cigarettes were smoked for each single determination of tar and nicotine. Determinations for tar and nicotine were carried out in triplicate. Smoking was performed in a four-place solenoid actuated mechanical smoking machine. Puffs of 35 milliliter volume and 2 seconds duration were taken at 1 minute intervals until the cigarettes were burned to a predetermined butt length. The tar content was determined by collection and condensation and evaporation of the solvent. The nicotine content was determined by precipitation with silicotunstic acid. The obtained results indicated that cigarettes perforated in accordance with the invention contained 41.9

percent less tar and 25.0 percent less nicotine than those which were not so perforated.

While in the foregoing there has been described and shown the preferred embodiment of the invention, various modifications may become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates. Accordingly, it is not desired to limit the invention to this disclosure and various modifications may be resorted to, falling Within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is:

In a filter tipped cigarette, the combination of a cigarette body including an imperforate paper wrapper and a filler of tobacco therein, a filter element provided at one end of said cigarette body in abutment with said tobacco filler, and a tipping band surrounding said filter element, said tipping band being longer than the filter element and projecting forwardly beyond the same over said imperforate paper wrapper of the cigarette body whereby the rear end portion of the paper wrapper underlies the front end portion of the tipping band, the front end portion of the tipping band being provided with a plurality of circumferentially spaced apertures located so that they are traversed by the plane of abutment of the filter element with the tobacco filler and so that rear end edge portions "of the imperforate paper wrapper in the front end portion of the tipping band underlie said apertures and are thereby exposed to external atmospheric pressure, said rear end edge portions of the imperforate paper wrapper underlying said apertures being inwardly deflectable by external atmospheric pressure to admit cool air to the filter element when smoke and hot air are drawn through the cigarette body during smoking.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,747,579 5/ 1956 Gage et a1. 131-10 X 2,988,088 6/1961 Schur 131l0 FOREIGN PATENTS 876,669 9/1961 Great Britain. 938,902 10/ 1963 Great Britain.

OTHER REFERENCES German application No. 1,075,485, Reemtsma et al., Feb. 11, 1960.

References Cited by the Applicant UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,269,995 1/ 1942 Trane. 2,693,193 11/ 1954 Pelletier. 2,923,647 2/ 1960 Aghnides. 2,980,116 4/ 1961 Schur.

SAMUEL KOREN, Primary Examiner.

LUCIE H. LAUDENSLAGER, Examiner. 

